The present invention relates to an X-ray apparatus and more particularly to an improvement of an X-ray apparatus having individual support means for supporting an X-ray source device and an X-ray imaging device for use in making diagnoses of patients' blood circulation systems.
Angiography has been used to gain an increased diagnostic resolution or accuracy in making diagnoses of patients' blood circulation system, such as for heart disease. The human heart comprises four chambers, that is, a right ventricle, a right atrium, a left ventricle, and a left atrium. The heart also has three valves, i.e., an aortic valve, a mitral valve, and a tricuspid valve, and has coronary arteries running around the heart. It is sometimes difficult to make a correct diagnosis of the heart with angiography, since X-ray images picked up in some directions show a superimposed ventricle and spinal cord, or superimposed blood vessels. It has recently become customary for an increased diagnostic resolution to take pictures of a heart in various directions depending on the purpose of the diagnosis in order to avoid making an incorrect diagnosis.
A conventional X-ray apparatus for the diagnosis of blood circulation systems comprises an X-ray tube, an X-ray image detector, for example, an image intensifier, and a C-shaped or U-shaped arm connecting the X-ray tube and the image intensifier integrally with its end portions. The patient lying on an extension of a table is positioned between the X-ray tube and the image intensifier so that the rays generated by the tube are aligned or directed onto him. Since the X-ray tube and the image intensifier are integrally connected, they cannot be used in combination with another installed film changer which is constructed so as to automatically feed the film or with another installed X-ray source device.
In other conventional X-ray apparatus, an X-ray tube support and an image intensifier support are comprised of telescoping sections adapted for vertical extension and contraction. These are mounted on the crane for movement in horizontal directions. When it has been necessary to pick up an X-ray image in a desired direction with this system, it has been time-consuming to position the X-ray tube and the image intensifier in central alignment with each other, since the holders are independently constructed. When a positioning exposure lamp in a movable X-ray aperture device has been used to determined an X-ray exposure zone, it has been required to move the table and the patient or the examinee on the table so as to be clear of such exposure until the positioning is completed. When the examinee and the table are in a position for taking pictures, the exposure lamp in the movable aperture device cannot be used, and hence it has been necessary to let the X-ray tube and image intensifier face each other as the operator thinks fit and cause an X-ray to penetrate the body of the examinee for ascertaining whether a desired part of the body is displayed on a monitor screen before its picture is taken. When the zone of exposure to radiation from the X-ray tube is shifted out of the area to be exposed, the operator is subjected to an X-ray exposure which is quite dangerous. Combined use of independently separate devices as described above results in an impaired ease with which such devices are operated, causing diagnostic resolution to be lowered.